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Saturday, June 26, 2010

Social Networking With Neil Young

But lo & behold, it looks like Neil got off that couch and posted on Facebook:

"i have been thinking about adding vampire blues to my show. but i would rather do it with a band. this is my first posting. thanks for being there."

Fascinating.

Vampire Blues. So timely. So awesome.

We "Liked" it. And so did about 10,000 others with thousands of comments.

Vampire Blues has only been played live once, when Young guested with Eagles on March 26th, 1974.

Neil's FB posting even made news in Rolling Stone, which relayed a rant from Chicago in 1999, about his "internet fans" fromHyperRust:

"One thing I found out on this tour is that the Internet has really changed things a lot. They got this list of all the songs I play. We try and play new songs all the time. I don't ever look at it. I just heard of it. Every night, whatever you do, it's there. I'll probably never look at the damn thing. I might use it for something else. I don't need to keep track of myself. I don't want to keep track of anyone else whose keeping track of me, either. A couple of weeks ago somebody was talking and I went, 'Shut up asshole!' I'm sure it went right up there. That's the Shut Up Asshole show! People in Zimbabwe are finding out what I said. I don't know what to make of all that. Here's another new song for this tour. It's probably only been played once before, maybe three days ago. It'll show up on the graph. They keep track of how many new songs I did, how many old songs I did in a different way. It's just a stupid song."

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21 Comments:

maybe some of you know archives guy personally, as in "in the flesh"--*I* do not...and if he's that much of an insider, surely he knows that Neil prolly doesn't apprciate info being leaked...just sayin'...as for Neil posting on FB (or mySpace) I'm not yet ready to believe it...

Anon 9:41 sez "The impression has been that everything archives guy has been saying is sanctioned by Neil. None of it is a leak." HOW does one form that impression? I'm NOT dissing AG or anyone else for that matter, so shove the hostility up yer butt...but why hide behind a pseudonym? anyone "sanctioned by Neil" shouldn't need one...explain it somewhat logically and with some respect and the subject is closed

I am full of admiration for the ways in which Neil Young has used the internet to interact with his fans.

Firstly there's the elusive Archives Guy who consulted with us about the Archives v1, which directly led to the addition of the mp3 download card with the DVD boxsets and the option to buy individual disks seperately online (the website still exists).

When people moaned (correctly) about how expensive a BluRay system was to purchase, Neil's team acquiesced to releasing a DVD version, even though that meant compromising the very reason the Archives took so long to come out in the first place - sound and picture quality.

Furthermore, some of the press releases have kept us intrigued and blogging for months, even if nothing has actually come of them yet! Toast is the obvious example here, but also the DVD/BR version of Get Around which was mentioned a while back.

And then there's the kind and loving side of Neil Young, where he has played Harvest Moon at a concert because he has been moved by somebody's story here on Thrashers wheat, an unprecedented move from a musician of Neil's stature.

All of this is brilliant, and makes being a Neil Young fan a more exciting experience. But we still like to be surprised by Neil, and I think that him blogging on which songs he may or not play is going a step too far.

I can see that it is a kind, inclusive gesture from Neil towards his fans.

But I strongly feel that, if it were to become a habit, it would actually weaken his position as an artist who is renowned for being deliberatley willful, free to do whatever he likes regardless of whether or not his audience want to hear it!

Thanks Thos! Good points. Yes, that's always been part of the mystery with Neil. What the heck is going on. Drives us nuts. But maybe we're at the point where being mysterious is no longer the ends to the means.

@ asg: AG has now switched places with Neil. AG is the mystery guy now. Neil posts on FB.

Am I the only one who suspected that the 'Archives Guy' and 'N.Y.' were one and the same? Unless, of course, it's Bernard Shakey or maybe Joe Yankee? ... never mind. Besides, "when you talk about mystique, then you have none" (Bob Dylan to Neil Young prior to the advent of the internet)In todays age of information, 'mystique' is virtually non-existant.

Anon 6:52 am...After I had posted it hit me that maybe there is more than 1 time that Neil uttered those words...for me, it was during a Greendale show, between songs where Neil would embellish the tale. Some twit wouldn't pipe down and Neil let him have it. But if there was one official show know as the A Hole show it makes perfect sence to this New Yorker that it would happen in Philly :)...

Seems to me that although in past years (and maybe the past couple decades) Neil usually didn't care to hear audience requests, sometimes he's been open to audience requests ... in fact I thought I read here that during TR I he played heart of gold because some girl was requesting it throughout the show ... And in the earlier days you can hear him asking the audience for requests .... In that vein the fact he's asking fans for their opinion is still Neil being Neil and its therefore not really different ... he's what I mean -- a) He's asking for opinions but in the end he'll do whatever he wants anyway and not worry about what people think, b) he's once again pioneering his art this time by expanding his relationship with his audience through social networking, c) just when we think he'll zig he zags ... so he's being as unpredictable as ever ... If I were a Vegas Bookie and you asked me what were the odds of Neil Young having a facebook page and interacting with fans directly I would have put them at 1:1,000 but how can anyone complain? Neil's reaching out live in another forum, this is one of his coolest innovations ever, if he's going to keep this up we should be celebrating...